Mehdi Sahabi's name is associated with the translation of Marcel Proust's literary masterpiece “In Search of Lost Time”. In addition to translating, writing and journalism, Sahabi also had activity in painting and sculpture. He began his artistic studies at the Tehran Academy of Fine Arts. In 1967 he went to Italy and after attending a filmmaking course, he spent a year studying painting at the Academy of Fine Arts in Rome. After graduating, he went to France and lived there until 1971. After returning to Iran worked as a journalist and translator and continued this profession seriously and continuously until the end of his life. Sahabi was fluent in English, Italian and French and translated numerous books from these languages ​​into Persian. “In Search of Lost Time”, “Madame Bovary”, “Emotional Training”, “The Baron in the Trees”, “Le Pere Goriot”, etc. are just a few of his prolific and brilliant translations.

In the first and most famous period of his career as a painter, he represented scrap cars which were crumpled and deformed as a result of an accident or scrap. Sometimes several human figures are standing next to these crumpled volumes to talk and watch. He held his first exhibition in 1989 in Golestan Gallery. Collaboration with Golestan continued until 1993 and Sahabi established three other solo exhibitions in this gallery. In the meantime, in 1990 his works were showcased in a group exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Tehran. In addition, his works have been exhibited in countries such as France and Italy. In addition, Mehdi Sahabi's first appearance in the auctions dates back to December 2016 at the Tehran Auction House. 

Although Sahabi was one of the famous literary figures, he never had a literary point of view towards painting. Formal and visual concerns and the subject of consciousness are the main themes of his paintings and sculptures. In his early years of his career, he had a classical approach to painting and used paints such as watercolor, gouache, acrylic and oil paint, but later moved away from representation and turned to techniques such as collage and assembly. Utilizing these techniques resulted in prominent patterns and volumes in his paintings. Pakbaz writes about his experimental approach to different materials: "In different periods, he painted and embossed with subjects such as birds and faces, and sometimes went as far as complete abstraction. He often made forms out of scraps of cardboard, plaster, and crumpled paper, and used the scumple and strie techniques. "It seemed that he was deliberately trying to combine playfulness and consideration in his work." Sahabi's own words on the occasion of showing the birds in 2006 at Aria Gallery confirms this point: "These birds are more playful than my other works. I have no specific claim about them. I did not intend to make any strange discoveries. "It's very simple, a free game, a kind of playfulness, among other things."